Sunday, March 24th, 2019
This morning we left Cairo for a scenic motorcoach ride to Alexandria which is located on the Mediterranean coast!
Our guide for Alexandria, Ihab.
When we got to Alexandria, our first stop was the Serapeum and Pompey’s Pillar.
After walking around the temple ruins and the artifacts garden, we headed to the Catacomb of Kom El Shoqafa which means “Mound of Shards”. It was named this because of all of the broken pottery found in the catacombs. Archeologists believe that family members would bring food and drink with them down into the catacombs in ancient times and they didn’t want to bring the glasses, dishes, etc… home with them so they would shatter them and leave them in the catacomb!
It was asked that visitors do not take any pictures in the Catacomb of Kom El Shoqafa and we respected that request. It was very interesting to walk down the stone steps which consisted of 3 levels of cut solid rock and the rock-cut tombs. This Catacomb is considered one of the seven wonders of the middle ages.
We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea!
We had a late lunch and by the time we finished it was time to get to our hotel, the Hilton Alexandria, and check in! Our hotel was located across the street from the Mediterranean sea.
Some of our group had rooms that looked out over the sea. Our room faced the city but it was a suite so we had plenty of room and a nice balcony! We wanted to walk over to the Mediterranean and put our feet in the water but it was extremely windy and the waves were really high, so we decided we would head over there tomorrow when the weather was to be much better!
